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Environmental change doesn't need to be complex. In preparing for the conference, students suggested the use of more energy-efficient lighting. The result: Yale saved a million dollars. That's what comes of approaching a project not as an end-point, but as a process.
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Academia and environmentalism — now there's a potent combination for environmentally responsible change. And the Campus Earth Summit was an outstanding example of how it can work.
The Summit was the brainchild of a group of student environmentalists at Yale. In 1994, they approached Teresa Heinz for funding to help them affect environmental change on campus. Mrs. Heinz countered with a challenge: "Put the focus on problem solving, and you've got a deal."
The result was the 1994 Yale University Campus Earth Summit, a gathering of 450 faculty, staff, and student environmental leaders from 160 institutions, 22 countries, six continents, and all 50 states.
The project did not take much money. It took ideas, interest, contacts, and collaboration between environmental leaders, students, other higher-education stakeholders, and philanthropic and corporate partners. The Summit's end product was the Blueprint for a Green Campus, a set of recommendations for higher-education institutions across the globe to work toward an environmentally sustainable future.
The Blueprint was based on two simple principles:
- That as multibillion-dollar consumers of higher education's services, students have the power to demand a more environmentally responsible campus and curriculum
- Faculty and staff can influence society by turning out environmentally literate citizens and by demanding environmentally sound goods and services
It includes specific recommendations, contacts for networking, and case studies of successful programs.
Colleges and universities educate most of the people who run society's institutions. They train the teachers who educate the world's children. It is clear that transforming campuses into catalysts for environmental sustainability is a very good first step toward changing the world.
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